In our Council #9 we explored Trance Postures as a method of Journeying, inspired by Robinette Kennedy’s guiding.
In our heretical trance experiment we used this image of Osiris, created circa 330 BCE, carved from sycamore (considered the Tree of Life by ancient Egyptians), he has a very similar posture to the Bear Posture described below by Robinette.
Here is the write up Robinette sent to Caroline’s Monday Council after guiding a trance posture session:
Trance Posture
The Bear Spirit Pose
By Robinette Kennedy
The Bear Spirit Pose is so named because many figurines of this pose (from all over the world, at least 30,000 years old) depict humans who have the head and/or body of a bear. Also, figurines of bears are often shown in this pose.
In all traditional cultures where bears live, people who follow a gathering/hunting or nomadic lifestyle view bears as the most revered of creatures. Each year in late winter around the Arctic Circle, people hold ceremonies where they imitate the gestures, postures, movements, and sounds of bears. The content of these ceremonies varies and may include putting on a bear mask or wearing the skin of an actual bear while dancing.
In these cultures, people rely on the activities and habits of bears as a survival tool. People observe bears’ schedules and activities as a calendar, a weather vane and a guide for reproductive behaviors.
The purpose of bear rituals is to merge with bears’ healing powers, life ways and nature. Even as far south as ancient Greece, bears were honored in much the same way as the northern European Saami and Lapp tribes cultures still do today. In the 6th century BCE, 35 kilometers north of Athens at a stunningly beautiful place named Brauron, every four years, young girls from Athens who were 5 to 10 years old were brought to Brauron, dressed in saffron-dyed robes, and taught how to dance bear movements as a ritual to honor the memory of a bear spirit associated with Artemis, the guardian spirit of the animals and the forest whose followers had the ability to shape-shift into bears. Today on Crete in a cave on the Akrotiri peninsula near the town of Chania, an annual festival related to bears and the mother of Jesus is still performed on February 2nd. The ritual is named ‘Arkoudiotissa.’ (Holy Bear Mother.)
Many American Indian tribes today see in bears’ yearly habits the ritual phases of spiritual initiation. For example, the first phase of initiation is cut one’s ties to the community and to one’s past identity. This act mirrors a bear’s ability to completely withdraw from the outside world in late autumn and enter a state of deep hibernation.
It used to be believed that while bears are hibernating in their caves or dens for as much as six months at a time, they shut down certain bodily processes such as eating and elimination. Now it is know that bears can place themselves into a state of deep hibernation for any period of time, suddenly spring to consciousness, leave the den in search of food and, a few hours later, return immediately to a state of deep hibernation.
Bears’ ability to place themselves into an apparently unconscious state that resembles shamanic consciousness is what leads many traditional cultures to refer to bears as the powerful shaman/healer of the animal world.
In 1999, I listened to a vision received by “Robert” through a sacred pose he later learned is associated with the bear spirit.
Robinette’s rattle quickly became a light. I was aware that big men were supporting me. In my vision, the room filled with men in front of me and women behind me. I saw an image of a bear. There was a man who was spinning. He had the rattle in his hand. The bear took a bite out of my face and tore apart my body with his claws. I was left with a funny pointed nose. The bear came back later and finished tearing off my legs. Women came and put a big bearskin over my shoulders.
The spinning man in the middle became the head of a raptor. A hawk made long wounds on my body. Men standing next to me had snake heads. A huge gray snake coiled around the entire circle and ate me like a chocolate bar. It embedded its fangs into my chest. I could feel its body going into my body. The snake became a stone arch over my head. Now, sitting here after the vision, I feel a spilling sensation up and down my body, a combination of anxiety and orgasmic energy. I am relaxed, not tired. I am different than I was before this trance began.
Before Robert’s shape-shifting experience brought to him by the bear spirit, he was working as a hospital psychiatrist. Soon after the above vision, Robert respectfully resigned from the hospital staff. He explained that he could no longer offer his patients only pharmaceutical drugs without other options that are genuinely healing. The hospital board asked Robert what he had in mind. He replied, “Lifestyle changes, physical exercise, nutrition, spiritual practices such as meditation, yoga, etc.” Eventually, members of this same hospital board offered Robert the resources he needed to create a drug-free mind/body/spirit institute where he continues to be the director of services.
The Figurine of the Bear Spirit Pose
Of all the sacred poses that have been found around the world from 30,000 years ago to the present, figurines depicting the Bear Spirit Pose are the most numerous. Humans and bears are shown lying, standing and kneeling in this pose. 34 examples of the pose were found in the Greek Cyclades Islands alone. The attached photograph (at top) shows a small figurine (1400 BCE) found in a grave in central Crete (in the 4,000-year-old cemetery of Fourni outside the town of Arkhanes.) It is made of steatite.
When to Perform the Pose
On or after February 2nd or midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, or when actual bears begin to emerge from their dens, or at any time that you want to connect spiritually with the great shaman/healer of the animal world.
How to Perform the Pose
After opening sacred space and inviting the Spirits, bring the tips of your fingers to touch lightly the palms of the hand, with the thumbs on the outside. Touch the outside of the middle knuckles of each hand together and pull your hands to your torso at the mid section of the body, above the navel.
It is possible to remain standing throughout the entire period of rattling/drumming. Or, you may start out standing or kneeling in the pose, and if you grow tired, you may lie down in a horizontal version of the standing pose. If you prefer to remain standing, but you are too tired to do so without assistance, stay in the pose while leaning back against a tree or stone or wall.
Tilt the head back slightly and allow the mouth to hang open as much as possible in a relaxed, comfortable position. Close your eyes and listen to rhythm (preferably at approximately three beats per second.)
Recommended Reading
To learn more about bears’ relationship to shamanism: Rockwell, David. Giving Voice to Bear.
To learn more about the value of awakening humans’ animal nature: Abram, David. Becoming Animal.
Robinette also wrote an article about Trance Postures in Sacred Hoop magazine:
Click here to open/download the PDF:
sacred hoop: robinette kennedy
Continue to explore Robinette’s work on her website:
http://www.robinettekennedy.com/
